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Friday, September 11, 2020

UPDATED: Top Durham Aide Quits

The Hartford Courant is reporting that Nora Dannehy, a longtime colleague of John Durham who was recruited for Durham's team by Durham himself, has resigned from DoJ. I didn't say so at the time, but I was a bit skeptical when word filtered out that she had joined Durham's team, since it was known that she was probably of a liberal bent.

According to the paper:

Colleagues said Dannehy is not a supporter of President Donald J. Trump and has been concerned in recent weeks by what she believed was pressure from Barr - who appointed Durham - to produce results before the election. They said she has been considering resignation for weeks, conflicted by loyalty to Durham and concern about politics.

Colleagues of Durham who know nothing about the investigation say they believe Durham is under pressure to produce results before the election:

Durham is notoriously circumspect and neither he nor members of his team have revealed anything about the direction of their work. But Durham associates, none of whom have specific knowledge of the investigation, have said recently that it is their belief he is under pressure to produce something - perhaps some sort of report - before the presidential election in November.

Despite his mild public demeanor, Barr is a notoriously hard charger. Pressure? I imagine so.

UPDATE 1: Are there ever legitimate political reasons to push to come up with results when you're investigating the biggest political scandal and crime in the history of our nation? I believe so. Simply making up for time lost to the pandemic is a legitimate reason for pressure--justice delayed is justice denied, and the evidence of criminal injustice that was done to Trump and to others is everywhere to be seen. Restoring some measure of integrity to our public life is not just a matter of criminal justice but of restoring political health to our polity.

UPDATE 2: I highly recommend SWC's tweets on why Dannehy might have left. Basically, he goes over her career, figures she may not actually have tried any cases since around 2010, is around 60 years old, and may simply not feel up to putting in what he figures would be 18-24 months minimum taking a case to completion--taking appeals into account. She may have a good earning private gig lined up and can put in a few years doing that before retiring.

22 comments:

  1. How dare Barr insist that justice not be delayed/denied?
    < /sarc>

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  2. Also, can you comment on the fact that She quit DOJ entirely, as opposed to simply transferring off of Durham's probe?

    Seems to me if the stated reasons for her departure were true, she'd simply transfer, not quit DOJ outright. ADn since she's quitting outright, there's no reason for her to hold back on stating if a nefarious circumstance motivated her departure. Yet her email made no such allegation.

    Ergo, this is a fabricated scandal. She's not even quoted as saying any of what her uninformed colleagues are claiming.

    Do you think such thinly grounded fabrications would be touted by the MSM if target letters have not gone out?

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    1. I could only quote the article, and it said that she resigned from DoJ. That could have been for any number of reasons--personal or professional.

      Delete
  3. FINALLY a tiny bit of evidence Durham is serious. More, please.

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  4. Photo of Obama with Judge Sullivan - blast from the past.. seems to explain some things...

    https://twitter.com/hfields366/status/1304517183729479682/photo/1

    from this tweet thread from Catherine Herridge re Dannehy resigning:

    https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1304507546330378245

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  5. AG Barr on the media:

    "They're basically a collection of liars. Most of the mainstream media. They're a collection of liars and they know exactly what they're doing. A perfect example of that were the riots. Right on the street it was clear as day what was going on, anyone observing it, reporters observing it, it could not have escaped their attention that this was orchestrated violence by a hardened group of street fighting radicals and they kept on excluding from their coverage all the video of this and reporting otherwise and they were doing that for partisan reasons, and they were lying to the American people. It wasn't until they were caught red-handed after essentially weeks of this lie that they even started feeling less timid," Barr said on the flight back to Washington Friday afternoon.

    from here:

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/09/11/exclusive-ag-barr-rips-national-media-as-a-collection-of-liars-over-riot-coverage-n2576070

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  6. Not pitching for the other side, but if she is of a liberal bent she must have more scruples and ethics than most on her side as nothing has leaked from the Durham team. If something should leak in the near future, she will become a lightning rod IMO...

    DJL

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    1. She will become a lightning rod, unless DJT loses, and she Gives Up key players (e.g. any moles helping him, incl. in foreign govt's).
      This is a Great Game, like no other in US history.

      Delete
  7. To my mind it's as probable that Ms. Dannehy resigned due to the possibility of being "cancelled" for working against the Party as concern about the investigative timeline. I would not be surprised if she wasn't advised to do so by these same helpfully chatty "colleagues". "Nice home/social circle/career/lifestyle you have there: to bad it'll all go away when the right side regains power. We never forget."
    They will attack anyone, anywhere with no remorse, by any means necessary.

    Possibly not, but no reason to discount the possibility.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Given the nature of her social circle, I was quite nervous that she was allowed on the team at all.
      The country may keep on paying forever, if she sings to the Right People (incl. on Deep Background).

      Delete
    2. To better rephrase part of the above, "even if *only* thru Deep Background".

      Delete
  8. The simplest, most anodyne explanation for the Durham's #2 resigning from DOJ is that she left DOJ 10 years ago to become CT Assistant AG for 3 years, then took a corporate counsel position until Durham asked her to join his investigation. IOW, she hasn't prosecuted a case in court for at least 7 years, and possible 10+.

    Ergo, she isn't any more interested in another DOJ gig than she was ten years ago when she left, and is too rusty to handle a 18-24 month haul as lead prosecutor on a case all the way through appeals.

    She likely came back to work with Durham again during the investigative phase, and if that phase in coming to a close -- and the prosecutorial phase is about to start, it would be time for her to check out, if she doesn't want to tie herself to running a prosecution for the next two years.

    And that comports with Hannity's question about targets being notified, and Kevin Corke's tweet about being told by a DOJ source to "Set his alarm clock" in response to his quip: "wake me up when there are indictments/arrests."

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  9. Mark, pure speculation on my part with the timing today of Dannehy's departure announcement today but is it feasible at all to think that her reasoning for leaving may have more to do with the slow streaming of these kind of documents e.g. the recent SCO team cell phones (wipes) and as Dyer suggests possible recover (my guess already recovered).

    And her possible disdain for the "gamesmanship" Barr, Durham et al have in mind with reference:

    "as is intended to shake certain members of Team Mueller out of a false sense of security. We know that revelations coming from Barr's DoJ are almost always have some purpose."

    Thoughts?

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    1. I doubt that very much. The 'gamesmanship' I referenced is standard investigative and prosecutorial tactics that she would be very familiar with, having worked some big cases in her past. SWC is probably right that she was on Team Durham in more of an administrative or coordinating role and is checking out before getting involved in prosecutions that could tie her down. I'll go with that unless something definite comes up.

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    2. If they keep the “filter team” separate from the prosecutors, it seems to me she’d have no place in the actual prosecutions. Brought in for one specific job/phase.

      I am no lawyer...

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  10. I think I read somewhere that some of Durham's prosecutors upset because Durham told them to go to the grand jury when the cases were ready, and would not allow any delays just because there is an election coming up.

    Clearly, some of the prosecutors are not enthusiastic about carrying out their sworn duties, so Durham fired them. That would be in holding with his character.

    Durham doesn't play favorites.

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  11. My prediction? Which is based on the totality of all the info Durham has leaked to date...(I think I know as much as anyone else prognosticating)

    Durham has reached the end of the investigation phase. He's ready to announce charges. Cases are being parcelled out for prosecution. Dannehy either didn't want or didn't get prosecution responsibility (in cases she investigated) and didn't want second or third chair...so her job is done and after about a year and a half of what has been undoubtedly 24/7 work...away from home in DC and not in CT...the 59 year old litigator is taking a break.

    There has been 'political pressure' from the get go. She's a pro and she knew precisely exactly what she was getting into...I'm not buying the MSM spin...

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  12. Mark -- I didn't see your 10:09 comment before I posted. I agree with you.

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  13. Even Democrats admit there may be reasons to hurry an investigation. Part of the predication of their lying to Trump about whether there was a investigation was their claim to be afraid Trump would shut it down.

    Hence, finishing a report on democrat partisan misdeeds and crimes can be defended as getting it done before President Harris shuts down the investigation.

    ReplyDelete